How I Would Start Gamedev (if I had to start over)

In this video, I reflect on my journey in game development alongside my wife, Nikki, acknowledging the mix of successes and setbacks we encountered along the way.

We delve into the many lessons learned and the changes I would implement if given the opportunity to start over again. With honesty and introspection, I share seven essential tips we've learned from our experiences.

These tips, aimed at aspiring indie game developers, offer a candid perspective on navigating the complexities of the industry. Whether you're just starting out or looking to refine your approach, these tips might just help you avoid some of the challenges we've experienced so far.

If you're new to our channel, we're Brandon & Nikki from Sasquatch B Studios. We sold our house to start our game studio, and work full time on building our business and making our game Samurado.

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[KhroMcKrakken]

I seem to disagree with literally all the game dev advice YT channels, except this one. This one actually teaches me things. And you don't subscribe to the "this is the only way to do game dev right" approach. You don't shame devs for trying to do things differently. You encourage multiple different ways to learn, even if it's through failing, because every lesson is valuable. You are a treasure.

[FrogKin]

I'm coming from the design side of things and always had the feeling of many solo indie devs focusing about theyr code way too much. Then buy an asset pack in the game store and think the game will skyrocket. Only to then be disappointed about not succeeding. Not that it is anyhow wrong or I know it any better. But what I learned from the film industry, is that only the really outstanding stories (probably 0.1% of all movies have this) go big. But art is key, to make a decent story successful. I thinik in games it's similar. People will always be attracted by catchy art. If then the gameplay (including the story) is decent, the code only needs to run somehow. The code should be the tool to tell the great story in an appealing way. It should not be the other way around. Left out unique mechanics, which can be a great hook too.

[snowcamo]

Thank you for the video! I plan to stream a one month challenge starting today. I know basically nothing, so I've been watching a few of your videos. I appreciate the positive thoughts and general attitude you have. Thanks again <3

[starsetnova]

I've been pursuing my Game Development and Programming degree for almost 3 years. I have never felt more pressure and more intimidated in my life when I'm trying to make something in Unreal so this video really does put my mind at ease and helped me a bit with finding that lost motivation I once had.

[hanhmy]

This is unexpectedly a great video I wanna watch

[morganw]

I've just gone full time as an indie dev and this video has been a huge help! Thank you for all the inspiration!

[eloctopusmakesgames]

I honestly think that everything that happens to you is a part of the journey...so each little mistake you have done is just part of your experience now!
I think that seeing things in that way helps a lot to keep following a dream!

[ragerungames]

Great video. I totally agree with you. I was an avid gamer in my childhood, spending countless hours playing. When I started working as a developer, it became hard for me to play other games. This was slowing me down during the game design process. Now, I am dedicating time again to play other games for learning and research purposes.

[АнтонВоронин-ощ]

You make cool videos! because they are honest, they sound really inspiring. Thank you for sharing this!

[patek]

Having monitors closer to each other is the first important thing I would change if I started making games from over.

[alignedgames]

Dude, starting over at this point would be a nightmare, I feel like it gets harder every year. When I started in 2010, a simple top down pirate indie game would make 1000's, now it would make basically nothing. I think people starting now have it even harder than we did!

[SleazyUnicorn]

Amazing advice. I watch your tutorials and videos most the time even though I’ll never touch Unity again!

[RTSun-lxee]

I agree and appreciate most of your words here.
Only to respond 1st point about code quality. I have wide variety of experience on Unreal side.
Once I had a unreal plugin to do a task due to my narrow understanding to do a thing. But later as I progressed, I found that I can actually implement the same function into a customized player controller.
By doing so, I gain 2 pros:
1. Much better portability, I don't need to maintain the plugin becaise of the rapid change of API. It's based on much stable in game API now. I can transfer to newer engine almost immediately.
2. Much shorter and cleaner code.
Then I realize this plugin is my "technical debt" during my inmature learning before.
Nowadays, it happen much less for me to have such problem.
So I thonk there is always some hard lesson to learn, but might turn out to be worthy.

[Chakuri]

really good advice, especially the last one. when start game dev you play less and less game to the point that your idea is really out date.

[MarushiaDark]

#7 hit hard. The last game I actually played that wasn't a mobile game or chess or something was Skyward Sword almost 13 years ago. In that time, I watched a lot of other people play games and would analyze those games in detail; but recently, I started playing games on my channel and immediately caught myself combing through all the little design decisions and even commenting on them during my playthroughs. Perhaps most critically was the game FEEL and getting a sense for things like difficulty and pacing and emotional impact.

[sannanch]

Dude you are so much honest and real about

[danielwertz]

I resonated with the working so much that you let regular household stuff be ignored. I'm a father and husband as well and It feels like there's not enough time in the day and when you clean something its just as bad the next day. It's like you're fighting a losing battle and it's hard to focus on other things like gamedev. I need to work on my lifestyle maybe i just don't really know how to start i guess lol.

[mrwdrake]

Great video. Point 1 is appreciated to hear. It's one of my fears, that I just won't write code the correct way. But I've heard it before that it's more important it works and is fun, then it is to make perfect clean code. And point 7. I love playing some of my old favourites and thinking "hey, I could make that, I know how I could do that!". Or wonder how something was done and work out the details in your head.

[AIAdev]

Here to learn how to get something right.

[MarushiaDark]

To the point about "design over code, " I'm always reminded of how Undertale was coded with one massive switch statement. Every programmer hearing that is probably screaming right now; and yet it's still heralded as one of the best games of all time.